Kevin Yee is a cyborg. Mind you, that's my theory. I don't have any definitive proof. Not yet, anyway. Copyright Ultimate Orlando Press. All rights reserved But there has to be some sort of logical explanation as to why this MiceAge columnist has become the Terminator of Disneyana-related authors...

It's now considered one of the great PR disasters of 2010. The way that NBC totally mismanaged its Jay Leno / Conan O'Brien situation. Which ultimately resulted in Conan bolting for TBS , a significantly battered & bruised Jay resuming his duties as host of " The Tonight Show "...

Hey, did I ever tell you my favorite grace-under-pressure story? It happened just recently. And not to me, thank God. But - rather - to poor Rupert Grint , the talented young actor who's played Ron Weasley in all of the "Harry Potter" movies to date. Photo by Jim Hill Now let me take a...

"Book publishers send me out to schools all the time. And the kids there always ask me how they can get a job like mine. And my answer is: Put your stuff up on the Web. Because you never know who's going to see it." Trust me, folks. Noah Z. Jones knows of what he speaks. You see, this illustrator...

It is arguably the best-loved film of that trio of fairy tales that Walt Disney Animation Studios produced during its Second Golden Age. The first hand-drawn animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture, " Beauty and the Beast " has been discussed, dissected and written about so often...

The tale of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Walt Disney Company have been intertwined ever since Walt Disney invited famed conductor Leopold Stokowski to come join him for dinner at Chasen's . Which is where the old Mousetro supposedly asked the Maestro if he'd be interested in working with Disney...

If you read my March 16 th non-review of that Showest screening of “ Toy Story 3 ,” then you already know that I’m a huge fan of this Lee Unkrich film. But you know what truly impressed me about this Pixar production? That in the months leading up to the release of this acclaimed animated feature, no...

“Mommy and Daddy, take my hand, Take me out to Freedomland ” I know, I know. That radio jingle may not be familiar to all you Disneyland and Walt Disney World fans. But for kids who grew up in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the early 1960s, that was the sweet siren song of “The Disneyland of...

It’s that time of year again. When high school and college students all over the country are graduating. More importantly, when JHM readers reach out and ask for my suggestions when it comes to the perfect graduation gift for the would-be animators and Imagineers in their families. This year, though...

When discussing a new summer blockbuster like Disney’s “ Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ,” it’s hard not to get caught up in all the details. Like those 1,200 visual effects shots that you’ll find in this Jerry Bruckheimer production. Or the action sequences that Mike Newell chose to stage 8,200...

Did you see where the purchase price of DreamWorks Animation shares dropped 6% yesterday because some investment analyst said that “ Shrek Forever After ” was projected to only make $315 million during its initial domestic run? Care to guess how many movies released last year sold more than $300 million...

By now, you’ve no doubt seen those online videos that made many a theme park fan go gaga. Where a few lucky Guests – as they were making a stop at Mickey’s House at Disneyland earlier this week – suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a NextGen walkaround character. A Mickey Mouse who not only addressed...

Good God. Are we really already be up to Volume 9 in the “Walt’s People” series? I can recall when Disney Historian Didier Ghez initially proposed these books (which – if I’m remembering correctly – was sometime back during the Pleistocene Epoch) that would collect & then reprint the very best Mouse...

Did you see where “ How to Train Your Dragon ” was No. 1 again at the box office this past weekend ? According to Box Office Mojo , if this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois film keeps up this pace, it will soon become DreamWorks Animation’s highest grossing non-Shrek movie . Which is kind of ironic....

Do you recall – just a few weeks back – how quick industry analysts were to write off “ How to Train Your Dragon ”? That – because this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois film “only” earned $43.3 million over its opening weekend (as opposed to the $59.3 million that DreamWorks Animation ’s “ Monsters vs...

When he was in the press room at Comic Con last July, Tim Burton talked about how “ Alice in Wonderland ” wasn’t actually the first film that he’d used green screen on (2007’s “ Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ” was). But because so many scenes for this Walt Disney Pictures release were...

For a guy who spends much of his time among the stars (the Hollywood kind, anyway), author and film historian Leonard Maltin is surprisingly down-to-earth. Which is why – when Leonard and I chatted on the phone yesterday about how he’d been selected to receive the very first NFFC-Disneyana Fan Club Heritage...

Take a dollop of “ Desperate Housewives ” and then toss that into a blender with a cup full of “ Charmed .” Now whip up elements of these two hit show elements up until they’re light & frothy, then pour the whole thing over the Stars Hollow sets from “ Gilmore Girls .” What do you wind up with? A...

He’s ba-a-ack. After taking a six month sabbatical from the Mouse House, master animator Glen Keane is back. Keane – who stepped down from his directorial position on “ Rapunzel ” last October due to health-related reasons – is now back supervising animation on that project. Master animator Glen Keane...

I’m almost afraid to say this, given that there are still two installments of the “Harry Potter” film franchise yet to come (i.e. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One,” which is currently slated to hit theaters in November of 2010. While “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two” will...